As Michael Vassalo has recently revised the inking credits for the first four issues of Captain America, and Marvel Masterworks has just released vastly improved reproductions of these stories, I will just briefly go over the remainder of issue #4, with some comments based on those new observations and those of my own. Since I have already ruined the binding of my hardcover edition, I will continue working with the inferior versions of issue #4, rather than defile yet another book. From Issue #5 and onward, I will be working with actual scans.

I’m continuing with page 8 above, which also appears to be Avison drawing, but again the drawing and compositions are tight and I feel that Kirby is providing a bit more than bare bones for the finishers. The composition in panel three is particularly effective, as is the anatomy and structure of the pileup in panel four. Mike Vasallo is attributing the inks to Syd Shores, I believe because of the profusion of ink lines that resemble hay, such as in the right upper edge of panel six.

Moving forward to page eleven above, these again look like fairly strong Kirby drawings finished by Avison. The anatomy of the human back is particularly challenging, and Kirby early on developed a signature pose of a rear-positioned figure leaping up and forward, with rear leg extended, a version of which appears in the first and third panels. Even the panoramic composition in panel five, with the semicircular door shape in the background appears too challenging for Avison’s skills at this point in time. Compare if you will Avison’s crudely executed structure and perspective of buildings in the previously noted Rozzo the Rebel story from my last post, if you need to see what I am referring to.

Page thirteen above, again gives us some decent Kirby layouts in the first panel showing the Nazi escaping in his mini-sub, Cap and Bucky in panel three running alongside the building’s perspective, and a wonderful slew of hideous creatures bursting forth from borders of panel five.

We finish up with page fourteen and a classic Kirby melee, finished by Avison and Shores. Again, although simple, the use of cross beams and the placement of figures on the floor plane says Kirby very loudly to me. In my mind, the specific juxtaposition of overlapping figures is a very clear indication of the superior artistic mind that Kirby possessed.